UK govt: IP address is "Intellectual Property address"

When the UK government calls an IP address an "Intellectual Property (IP) address" in an official letter, one gets a little peek inside the mentality that just brought Web censorship and graduated response to Britain.

While it's clear that the lawmakers didn't know what they were doing, sometimes botches like this happen when some secretary is told to make revisions to a document. Example directive: remove non-PC language. Result: "It is important to cut the African-American wire before the red wire". Another example directive: expand any acronym that hasn't been previously explained. IP? OK, rewrite that to "intellectual property".

My first job out of school was a contract that involved modems, and the secretary that filed the progress statements kept changing "modem" to "modern". (Yes, I'm old; fax machines were involved, so it was a character recognition error).

While it's clear that the lawmakers didn't know what they were doing, sometimes botches like this happen when some secretary is told to make revisions to a document. Example directive: remove non-PC language. Result: "It is important to cut the African-American wire before the red wire". Another example directive: expand any acronym that hasn't been previously explained. IP? OK, rewrite that to "intellectual property".

fantastic. pushed through into law with less than 3 hours of debate.Peak attendance of the vote was less than 7% of the house. out of 646 Members of Parliament, only 236 even bothered to Vote (less than 37%) . turns out no one even bothered to proof read it. this in the RUN UP TO A NATIONAL ELECTION?

I used to be in favour of a republic, but having seen how poorly the major parties in the UK have performed over the last 15 years, I fail to see a single argument in favour of them having any say at all.

Still, Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

What's the main use for the basic plumbing of the Internet? Why, hunting down copyright infringers, of course!

What's the scope of Internet, the very purpose of its existence? Hunting down criminals, of course! If it weren't for Internet, law agencies had more trouble in tracking and hunting dangerous video and mp3 traffickers. That's why the Internet and Intellectual Property address were invented, to make it a breeze to catch and prosecute such criminals.

Some criminals may even hide behind something like SSL ( Secure Stealing Layer), SSH tunnels (Secure Stealing Highway), PGP (Pretty Good Piracy), TOR (Traffickers Obfuscating Route), but we may pass a law making such criminal tools obsolete by making cryptography illegal. Why would someone use cryptography if not to steal Intellectual Property? Honest people don't use encryption.

Besides there is always the Good Old Fashioned postal service. I remember being in School, waay back in 1986-1987 and marveling at my friends bootleg ST collection (all of 7 copied games). So I asked him how he got them. He told me he put an advert in a magazine for hints, tips, etc. So I did. My Ad was first in a magazine called Amiga Format.

Around 3-4 days after publication I was leaving for school one day and the postman arrived with a jiffy bag full of 3.5 inch disks. There was a note inside saying "here is my stuff" and "here is a list of what I have got" and "copy me anything on that list you have that I don't". (Sound familiar that principle?) I sooo skipped school that day.

The only problem was, I didn't have ANY thing to send him back. But that wasn't a problem as when I got back from school the next day there were 3 jiffy bags. So I coped the stuff I wanted, and swapped the stuff other people sent with each other. (Anyone remember X-Copy Pro??).

Things were glorious for a while. I had a massive collection of games, experienced games that you couldn't buy in the shops (great giana sisters anyone...) and got into Soundtracker. However things did get slightly out of hand. Even though my advert had run its course, more and more people were writing to me. And from all over the world as well, South Africa, Netherlands, Spain, US.... I ended up purchasing a second drive. And then a third. I ended up getting to know some of the hacking groups at the time (Fairlight, Razor). However all was not well at my house. My entire evenings were spent on X-Copy and checking lists. I felt like I was coming home from school to do an 8 hour shift.

In the end I just ended up sending everyones stuff back to them. And when that didn't work I ended up just keeping the stuff until they asked for it back.

I think I had somewhere in the region of 3,000 3.5" drives when I quit. Storing them was a nightmare and I was getting rather worried that the postman may report me. After all, I was only a schoolkid and getting 10-15 jiffy bags a day MAY alert someone that I was up to no good, even if it was the postman getting pissed off with having to deliver to me so much.

That experience taught me a great deal. Mainly that there is no fun in it. I was only one person, and sure I had every game imaginable, but... I could only play one at a time and I needed the time to play it and copying all the stuff was no way for a schoolkid to spend his time on. Eventually I sold my Amiga and got into girls... (but that is another story)

Which leads me on the point of this rather elaborate anecdote. I often wonder what percentage of stuff people download they actually consume. As if its anything like my experience probably not a great deal. I can't criticize others for filesharing, given my past, but I don't agree with it. Not in the interest of the artist or the company but in my own enjoyment of those products. I think this is an avenue the RIAA/MPAA or who ever should consider pursuing. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but what stopped me was I was no longer enjoying it.

Now I just buy the odd game or two (Oblivion, GTA IV, Mass Effect 2) and I really enjoy them. Sure I could fire up the downloads and get every game out there, but then I have to install them all, crack them all, worry about rootkits, gunk up OS with a million games and never actually play them.

Think of it like one of those drunken internet porn sessions, you have already seen enough to fire both barrels, but that reptilian part of you compels you to check "if there is anything better"...

OT: Just a minor quibble, but please avoid shortening a link if it isn't necessary to do so, since Ars will do that in an appropriate way. The issue is I can't be sure where the link goes to until I click on it, otherwise.

Eventually I sold my Amiga and got into girls... (but that is another story)

That's some segue ... "so, I moved on to putting ads in the back of Playboy asking for 'tips, tricks, etc', and before I knew it, folks from all over the world were sending me their gf's as part of a gf-swap program."

Quote:

Which leads me on the point of this rather elaborate anecdote. I often wonder what percentage of stuff people download they actually consume.

90%. It only takes 10 minutes to install something, realize it's the POS you thought it would be, and uninstall/wipe it from your machine. Then you tell yourself "whew, glad I didn't spend money on that crap."

Not that *I* do that, mind you. I'm merely relating OTHER peoples' experiences.

UK's music and movie industries will never seea dime out of me.I feel bad for our brothers in the UK.I am a US citizen that loves foreign films and music.I will just stay away from any Uk stuff so they won't see my money feeding their greed.

Besides there is always the Good Old Fashioned postal service. I remember being in School, waay back in 1986-1987 and marveling at my friends bootleg ST collection (all of 7 copied games). So I asked him how he got them. He told me he put an advert in a magazine for hints, tips, etc. So I did. My Ad was first in a magazine called Amiga Format..................

Sounds a bit like my own story - though I mainly copied for kids at school or people in the neighbourhood. Still - I had several thousand games and could get my hands on pretty much anything I wanted. These days of course, I have 95% of Amiga games spread over around 10 DVDs!

Besides there is always the Good Old Fashioned postal service. I remember being in School, waay back in 1986-1987 and marveling at my friends bootleg ST collection (all of 7 copied games). So I asked him how he got them. He told me he put an advert in a magazine for hints, tips, etc. So I did. My Ad was first in a magazine called Amiga Format..................

Sounds a bit like my own story - though I mainly copied for kids at school or people in the neighbourhood. Still - I had several thousand games and could get my hands on pretty much anything I wanted. These days of course, I have 95% of Amiga games spread over around 10 DVDs!

i suspect commodore products where more common in europe then apple products until recently...

Isn't it lovely when people pass bills they don't understand without first attempting to debate it? Useless.

For those that may not know, this bill was passed quickly with little debate as part of a process known as the 'wash-up'. When an election is called (as of course it has been), Parliament is dissolved and the wash-up process involves several bills being rushed through with little or no debate.

Here's a list of the other bills that were voted on, that same Wednesday and the following Thursday. Bear in mind, though, that not all of them were meant to be discussed as complete bills; some were only sections of bills that still needed discussion.

Eventually I sold my Amiga and got into girls... (but that is another story)

That's some segue ... "so, I moved on to putting ads in the back of Playboy asking for 'tips, tricks, etc', and before I knew it, folks from all over the world were sending me their gf's as part of a gf-swap program."

You know what, you might be onto a winner there. Can you imagine setting off to work and the postman brings a hot Swedish blonde for you. Winner! Although if you see an 18 wheeler pull up with two sweaty burley men struggling to carry the worlds biggest Jiffy bag you aint going to open door, and the delivery card goes straight in the bin. (Until you get a letter a few days later asking where his 18 year old cheerleader triplets have got to! Damn!!)

Besides there is always the Good Old Fashioned postal service. I remember being in School, waay back in 1986-1987 and marveling at my friends bootleg ST collection (all of 7 copied games). So I asked him how he got them. He told me he put an advert in a magazine for hints, tips, etc. So I did. My Ad was first in a magazine called Amiga Format..................

Sounds a bit like my own story - though I mainly copied for kids at school or people in the neighbourhood. Still - I had several thousand games and could get my hands on pretty much anything I wanted. These days of course, I have 95% of Amiga games spread over around 10 DVDs!

I installed an emulator. My heart new it wasn't the real thing. *sobs*

Sure hope it's just a silly mistake. Still, it is truly embarrassing and sad, and instills doubt about the abilities of the legislators to write sensible laws regarding today's technology.

mattcannon wrote:

fantastic. pushed through into law with less than 3 hours of debate.Peak attendance of the vote was less than 7% of the house. out of 646 Members of Parliament, only 236 even bothered to Vote (less than 37%) . turns out no one even bothered to proof read it.

What's the main use for the basic plumbing of the Internet? Why, hunting down copyright infringers, of course!

What's the scope of Internet, the very purpose of its existence? Hunting down criminals, of course! If it weren't for Internet, law agencies had more trouble in tracking and hunting dangerous video and mp3 traffickers. That's why the Internet and Intellectual Property address were invented, to make it a breeze to catch and prosecute such criminals.

Some criminals may even hide behind something like SSL ( Secure Stealing Layer), SSH tunnels (Secure Stealing Highway), PGP (Pretty Good Piracy), TOR (Traffickers Obfuscating Route), but we may pass a law making such criminal tools obsolete by making cryptography illegal. Why would someone use cryptography if not to steal Intellectual Property? Honest people don't use encryption.

All joking aside/

"Honest people don't use encryption." What about your email, online banking, credit card purchases, paypal and such? it's ALL encrypted. And another simple question: Why do you close the door when you go to the loo? Do you have something to hide?